Pocket Books Inc., New York

Pocket Books were the first American paperbacks to be distributed on a large scale. The firm was founded in 1939 by Robert F. DeGraff, M. Lincoln Schuster, Leon Shimkin and Richard L. Simon, after the marketing of 2,000 copies of a test edition of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth in the autumn of 1938. The first 10 titles released in 1939, were printed in editions of 10,000 copies each (except for number 6, Dorothy Parker's Enough Rope, of which only 7,600 copies were printed).
1. Lost Horizon- James Hilton
2. Wake Up and Live!- Dorothea Brande
3. Five Great Tragedies- William Shakespeare
4. Topper- Thorne Smith
5. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd- Agatha Christie

Number 259, Ellery Queen's Halfway House (1944), was published in an oblong format and set in two columns, just like the Armed Services Editions; this experiment was not repeated.
Numbers 268, 321 and 324 were published with dustjackets.

Production supervisor James Jacobson originally functioned as art director and hired artists to produce cover illustrations. When Jacobson was called up for military service, his position was taken over by Ed Rofheart, who gave cover assignments to design-oriented artists like E. McKnight Kauffer, Leo Manso, Jeanyce Wong and George Salter. Sol Immerman, who had been doing coverwork for Pocket Books on a freelance basis, was appointed full-time artdirector in 1947; he remained in that position until 1975, the year the firm was bought by Gulf and Western.
Over the years, Immerman worked with the following artists: H.L. Hoffman, Leo Manso, Stanley Meltzoff, Harry barton, Roswell Keller, Paul Kresse, Frank McCarthy, Casey Jones, Carl Bobertz, George Erickson, harry Bennett, Tom Dunn, John Groth, Victot Kalin, James Meese, Gerald McConell, Don Neiser, Barye Phillips, Verne Tossey, Lou Marchetti, Paul Bacon, Charles Binger, Richard Powers, Sam Savitt, Robert Schulz, Charles Skaggs, Stanley Zuckerman, Bob Abbett and Robert McGinnis.

Pocket Books (G.B.) Limited was established in London in August 1949; the first titles were released the following spring.
B1. Ming Yellow- John P. Marquand
B2. Pro- Bruce Hamilton
B3. The Lost Weekend- Charles Jackson
B4. Mink Coat- Kathleen Norris
B5. The Anatomy of Murder- Dorothy L. Sayers and others

The British Pocket Books resembled their American cousins in format and graphics, but their cover illustrations, being of British origin, were of a lower quality. The series was abandoned in 1953.

By 1951, the price of 25 cents per volume could no longer be maintained for all Pocket Books; as a forum for higher-priced books, the Cardinal Editions entered publication in that year, priced at 35 cents; in 1952, the 50- or 75-cent Cardinal Giants were added.
The difference between the Cardinals and the standard Pocket Books was indicated by a colored band along the spine: Pocket Books had a silver band, while the more expensive Cardinals had gold bands. In January 1951, Pocket Books' series for young readers, which had appeared under the imprint Comet Books since 1948, was renamed Pocket Books, Jr.
J-35 Ski Patrol- Montgomery Atwater
J-36 Long Lash- Bertrand Shurtleff
J-37 The adventures of Tom Sawyer- Mark Twain
J-38 Baldy of Nome- Esther Birdsall Darling
J-39 Sponger's Jinx- Bert Sackett

After 43 titles (numbered J-35 through J-77), the Junior line was discontinued as a result of disappointing sales.

The first titles of the Pocket Books Art Series appeared in 1953.
A1. Degas- Daniel catton Rich
A2. El Greco- John Matthews
A3. Toulouse-Lautrec- Samuel Hunter
A4. Cezanne- Theodore Rousseau, Jr.
A5. Dufy- Alfred Werner

And in May, 1954, the Pocket Library series was introduced. These books, which cost 35 or 50 cents, bore unvarnished offset-printed covers and were advertised as being "books of classic literary stature &quaot;.
PL-1. Man and the State: The Political Philosophers- Robert N. Linscott
PL-2. Man and Man: The Social Philosophers- Robert N. Linscott
PL-3. Man and the Universe: The Philosophers of Science- Robert N. Linscott
PL-4. Man and Spirit: The Speculative Philosophers- Robert N. Linscott
PL-5. The Imitation of Christ- Thomas à Kempis